Not only is Artist and Color Consultant Barbara Jacobs of Barbara Jacobs Color and Design (www.bjacobscolordesign.com and www.barbarajacobsfineart.com) an outstanding color consultant, but she also designs her own line of custom area rugs (Silk Road Weaves). She had us create a special "Eco Hues Full Spectrum Palette" that all go beautifully with our full spectrum colors! (Photos courtesy of Barbara Jacobs). Barbara is located in Sebastopol, California but also provides "long-distance" color consultation with a focus on special services for exterior building color.

(Barbara specified "Pumice" walls for this foyer, above and "Honeysuckle" for the walls in the entry below)

("Hitching Post" accent wall coordinates well with "Sand" used on the rest of the walls)

("Mykonos Red" accent wall with "Powdered Pebbles" shown on right)

("Pueblo" Dining Room Walls by Interior Designer Jennifer FaGalde of FaGalde Designs, who specializes in residential and light commercial design projects in Northern California. Jennifer, who is also known for more eclectic designs, created "Jaunty Jen" from our Designer Palette!)

"As a Color Consultant, I specify a lot of paint colors. I depend on Full Spectrum Paints by Ellen Kennon to help me customize environments and create unique atmospheres. Unfortunately, I regularly encounter people trying to “match” her full spectrum colors.

For a recent project, I specified one of her stock colors, Slate, and a custom full spectrum mix she created of Sherwin Williams' (SW) Relic Bronze. My client’s painter guaranteed them that between the technology available to the paint store staff and his experience, “any color could be matched”. They were not successful in matching Slate or Ellen’s full spectrum version of Relic Bronze.

Their version of Slate is more of a turquoise; it is missing that refined, muted edge that makes Slate so sophisticated. Their version of full spectrum Relic Bronze is totally off and the most problematic. It does not even match the SW Relic Bronze color chip. Multiple gallons of attempted color matches, a store manager and a local paint rep later, they were still not able to get a spot-on match to the full spectrum swatches. Apparently, they thought their final attempts were close enough and it did not matter. Well, it matters. The miss on the color matches is obvious. To top it off, the product they felt matched the custom Relic best made a streaky mess of the walls. Because of their lack of understanding of how full spectrum color is mixed, two of the colors painted in my client’s home are not what I nor my client expected.

A repaint will be scheduled and the full spectrum paint colors I originally specified will be used. Clients are disappointed to say the least. Their painter "guaranteed" that he could match anything and they made the mistake of trusting him when it came to custom, designer color. Even though he is an in-demand, experienced, and quality-oriented craftsman, his lack of advanced color knowledge left my client with two rooms that need to be repainted. After having their whole house in paint-chaos for a week, they are not looking forward to starting over in those rooms.

The initial cost to purchase the full spectrum colors as specified would have been a fraction of the losses in material and labor accumulated in the effort to copy them."

(Above photo "Camelhair" walls on left in with "Gustavian Grey" walls in room beyond and photo below really shows the chameleon-like characteristics of our "Gustavian Grey" which are on all walls. Project colors specified by Color Consultant Lori Sawaya of Color Strategies)

(Lori's photo of one of her projects shows "Mushroom's" chameleon-like qualities)

("Adobe" walls above wainscoating)

"We used Buttercream, at your suggestion, in our wine country home - it is truly magical. I am so happy there and I believe it is in no small part due to your wonderful paint."

-Sharon Rosenbaum, San Francisco, California

"Since I painted my office with Ellen's Full Spectrum Paints, every time I go into my office, my associates are all congregated inside. No one wants to leave because it feels so great. I call it "happy paint" because when I walk out into the hallway, the energy drops!"